


Flight for Freedom

by Tak



Category: Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-18
Updated: 2013-09-18
Packaged: 2017-12-26 23:06:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/971353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tak/pseuds/Tak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>so a week or so ago after a few beers I asked myself what if...<br/>What if Hawke never made it to Kirkwall and the boat when someplace else. <br/>what if after one of the other earlier escapes Fenris gave up trying to live as a free man..<br/>In my mind Hawke and Fenris will always find each other, they are an OTP of mine..</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flight for Freedom

Fenris lay back on his bed, his tan skin bruised, sore to touch, every joint ached. He had just begun to let the wariness slip from him as the door swung open.  
"I have a gift for you." Danarius announced gliding in the door. Fenris jumped to his feet in his masters presence, not wishing to be disrespectful.  
"After that simply Devine performance this morning, I feel you deserve it." He took a step to one side revealing a woman.  
Dark red curls kissed her shoulders, She held her hands in front of her, her head and eyes cast down at the floor.  
"Thank you sir, but what do I do with her." The elf stammered.  
Danarius waved his hand, "do what you will. If you don't want her I can give her to the guards."  
"No. No." He quickly answered, fearing for the poor woman's safety. It would be like throwing meat to starving dogs.  
Danarius smiled the corners of his mouth twisting suggestively. "Good I will leave you too it." He pulled the door closed behind him.  
Fenris flopped back onto his bed. "Well make your self comfortable." He said finally to the unmoving form.  
Slowly her hands came apart, her fingers reached out ahead of her. Carefully probing the space before her like newborn taking its first steps. with just as much caution she moved a bare foot forward. Fenris frowned, standing to take her out stretched hand. "Can you see?" He asked.  
"Oh yes quiet well," the sarcasm dripping from her quietly strong voice "I stumble round rooms like this for fun." He placed her hand on seat of the only chair in the room so she could seat herself comfortably.  
"Shouldn't you have a stick or something?"   
He had seen people in the streets, tapping the cobbles as they begged for coin, feeling their way around.  
The woman laughed "I had one up until my second escape attempt. When they figured out I can do as much damage with a stick as I can with a sword."  
Fenris chuckled despite himself. "Do I have to worry about you?"  
'You sound like a big strong man." She smirked, turning her face towards his voice "I'm sure you can handle me."  
He shook his head, nothing about her spoke slave. Excusing the bowed head to her disability her posture and manor was anything but subservient. Her green eyes glittered emerald in the candle light with their own life despite being sightless.   
He moved back to the bed and her head followed him, keeping an ear listening intently to his quiet movements. He ran his hands over his face.   
"What is your name?"   
"Faith." She answered simply.  
"Do you have any family here."  
She sighed softly "Just my sister,"  
"Is she also..." His words trailed off, he hated the word slave, it made his skin crawl, even though it was as much of who he was as who she was.  
"Indentured?" Faith laughed, "No my sister is a Mage, I'm sure she is thriving in the imperium."  
"Did she sell you out?" It wouldn't be the first he had heard of a family getting rid of some one they considered a burden.   
"No, we were separated." She swallowed. "Look, you don't have to make with pleasantries. I know why I am here, and what I'm here for."  
"And what's that?" He asked playing coy despite Danarius grin spelling it out for him.  
"You don't hire a blind maid, and you don't need to see to suck cock."  
He laughed so hard he coughed, snorting at her blunt omission.   
"You don't have to treat me like a person, I understand my place despite my charming wit."  
He rose to his feet, standing before her. "Danarius didn't tell you anything about me?"  
She shook her head. "Only you're his little wolf, Fenris. Frankly I was worried he was leading me to a kennel."  
He knelt down before her and took one of her hands gently. Raising it to his ears, running her fingers along the long pointed edge that earned his race the nickname knife ear.  
"Your an elf." She whispered, "How peculiar."   
His hand dropped away as hers lingered, her other hand rising to his cheek. "May I?" She asked before she made contact.  
He nodded before adding "Yes."  
Her fingers were soft, un-callused unlike his. They tiptoed up to his fore head her thumbs coming together between his brow. She smiled a small lopsided grin tugging from the right side of her face.  
"What?" He asked worried she had found some secret he didn't know his features could tell.   
'You frown a lot." She told him. "The wrinkles are deep set in your brow." She followed the line of his nose brushing his cheeks then his mouth. Her left hand returned to her lap as the middle finger of her right hand lingered on his bottom lip. Lightly tracing the line of his mouth. "I bet you have a charming smile. It's probably safer I can't see it."   
He took her hand and removed it from his face placing it on her lap. He turned away from her.   
"I have angered you."   
"No." he sighed "No, I just don't know what to do with you. I'm not a magister, I'm a warrior," he hung his head "a slave,"  
"I am here to please you. What ever your heart desires, but should your heart not desire anything from me, we could continue to talk."   
"Yes," he said sitting back on the floor in front of her "I would like that." 

The night drifted by as they chatted together. Fenris had never known a person to talk to him, not bark orders or hurl insults.   
He found out about her past, the fever that took her sight, and her mother. The blight in Lothering. She was also a warrior, or use to be until she became blind. From his side, the conversation was lacking, his past a wash of Lyrium pain, he had no memory's before. All he knew was servitude.  
She fixed them a drink, once she located to jug on the table, despite his protests. Assuring him that she was blind not an invalid and still going to make herself useful.   
They began to tire, doing more yawning than talking he offered her the bed only to be laughed at. she did accept a coverlet for the floor by the hearth. 

Days passed and he became use to her pottering about. Keeping her self busy tidying, polishing and sharpening. He found her a Cane so that she could venture out into the estate, using the excuse of running his errands so she could stretch her legs every once and a while. He enjoyed her little quirks, the way she held a mug to tell how full it was. The way she tilted her head to listen to him as he talked. Her hands, how they touched him locating him in the space, so that she could help him with his armour.  
She became his oasis of kindness in the desert that was his life of death and subservience. He lent on the door armour and body slick with the blood of Danarius enemies. She greeted him sweetly.   
"Could you fill a bath?" He asked wiping the gore from his sword.  
"Of course." She replied with no hesitation. 

The deep cooper bath, was a luxury, something he was rarely allowed. With the master of the house busy with the aftermath of the carnage he felt he could get away with it.   
Faith sat at the edge pouring the last jug of water testing its heat and depth with her hand. The steam licked up from the copper looking positively inviting. Eagerly he stripped off, casting aside armour leaving on the floor.   
Moving from the side of the tub she let him pass, her head turned away habitually giving him the sense of modesty despite her inability to see.  
He lowered into the water, it wrapped its warmth around his body. Faiths hand trailed along the lip of the bath until she bumped into his shoulder. He barely acknowledged her as her fingers brushed his skin. Trailing the lines of each muscle until she reached his neck. His head flopped back over the edge of the bath, he had closed his eyes to better appreciate the quiet tranquility in the room.   
Her fingers spread, fingertips adding just enough pressure that he noticed. Both hands joining to rub the base of his scull before sliding up into his hair massaging his temples.  
A pleasurable moan escaped his lips, Faith felt him lean back into her hands, pleased she could help him relax.  
She stroked his forehead, smoothing out the deep frown lines knowing they would eventually come back, she circled his face running from his cheek bones down his jaw. Her hands dipped under water as she ran off his neck onto his chest.   
He felt her hair as she leaned over him, and as she slowly began to pull back he lifted his hands from their resting spot and caught her face. He brought her lips to his, upside down she nibbled his bottom lip as she returned his affection. The tops of their tongues touched, titivating and teasing each other as they kissed. It should have been awkward as the ends of her hair fell into the water. His hands wet, the water cooling on her cheeks. But passion covered for any discomfort. He broke away to catch his breath and whispered "I want you."  
"Then you shall have me." She uttered softly, "but not before you finish your bath"  
He laughed, "after all this time you make me wait?"  
"Because you have waited all this time," she told him "I know you can."   
As she moved away her fingers lingered on him, taking the longest rout around the bath, so she could trail her fingers across his skin, until finally they parted. She bundled his armour pieces up and with her cane tapped her way out of the room and down the hall.

He soaked away the grime, his yearning for her eating at the back of his mind. Along with a niggle, she had been sent to him to warm his bed. She wasn't here for him to love, or befriend, she was here to please him. He knew how that felt, to have no decision in what happened in your life, when a master called the only word you could utter was yes.  
Wrapping the towel around him he strode into the room, stopping just inside and closed the door, looking at her sitting in the chair. Hands clasped in her lap, waiting for him.  
He swallowed. "You don't have to do this."   
She stood taking a careful step in the direction of his voice. "No is not a luxury we are allowed."   
She reached out to him, catching his hand after some fumbling and linking her fingers with his. "If it helps, and I was able to choose. I would have chosen you regardless."   
She waited, unable make any further moves with out direction. He felt distant, his body unmoving despite her honest omission. Her jaw clenched, as she felt the burden of her disability, she couldn't see his reaction. She couldn't see his face soften, or the faint smile pull at the corner of his mouth, she could hear his heart beat faster as he pulle her close to him. His body still full of the baths heat, she turned her face in the direction she thought would face him, her left hand the one not linked with his reaching towards him. Fingertips brushing his cheek, she felt his smile for an instant before he kissed her. 

Sleeping soundly next to him, Faith snuggled closer to his side. Her nose resting against his chest her breath tickling him gently. He put an arm around her. Tracing the strange tattoos that covered her rib cage, the dark ink matching the tattoo on her right temple and brow. The punishment for her escape attempts etched into her back the flogging lines slowly fading. Normally it was his body that was put under scrutiny. The Lyrium twists and turns, white veins contrasting his caramel skin, those markings made him Danarius' favourite pet and body guard. Robbing him of any memory of a life before them cursing his existence until now. He lay awake un able to take his eyes of her, wondering what would of happened if the ship she sailed on hadn't hit the storm, hadn't been thrown off course and had made Kirkwall. Or If he had decided to abandon Danarius and stow away on the passing ship while he had the chance.   
He would loath a universe where they didn't meet.

Days passed, they passed like he was in a dream. Danarius barely railed him from day to day. His life had gained purpose, and a new zeal that he thought he had given up on the day he had let the ship pass him by.  
As he opened the door, expecting the singsong greeting, and happy face, he was met with a cold hearth, over turned furniture and an empty room.  
He called to her, running back out of the room and down the hall, he asked every servant and slave he saw. They all solemnly shook their heads. He raced to Danarius,  
"Who?" His master asked  
"Faith, the red head, the blind woman?"   
Danarius didn't look up from the parchments he was looking over "oh your bed warmer. Hadrianna has an important ritual to perform, she was the most expendable so, I gave her over."  
"You can't!" He exclaimed his blood beginning to boil in his veins  
"Excuse me?" Danarius looked up. Meeting Fenris gaze with a malicious calculating one. The elf backed down stammering an apology, his masters gaze tearing any disobedience to shreds. He left with out further complaint, racing through the halls to find Hadrianna.   
He knew she would ruin it some how, the woman was the Bain of his existence, taking glee in his torment, of course she would take away from him the one thing that could make him happy.   
He rounded a corner to see her burst from a room. Her back to the door holding it shut. Her eyes wide and scared, low shouts and screams of men muffled by the wood.   
Her terror turned to rage as she saw him, "You!" She shouted "You didn't tell me she was a Reaver!"  
He looked at her confused "Reaver?"  
She ignored his question, relaying her experience instead. "I bled her, like any sacrifice, cut her throat and waited" her voice shook retelling the events. "But she didn't die, the guards began to collapse, the blood coming from their pours like mist sticking to her. Healing her."   
Fenris shook his head. It was some trick she was playing.   
He heard powerful footsteps behind him and felt a hand push him out of the way roughly.  
"You should have checked." Danarius told his apprentice.  
"But You gave..."  
He cut her off with a raised hand, "I gave you who we could spare, it was your job to see if she was suitable." He commanded her to move and opened the door.

Shuddering into consciousness, Faith gasped. She heard the door open and slow strong steps approach her.   
A cloth touched her brow, wiping roughly at her skin. Then her throat. The room was silent, the ominous silence that accompanied death in the room.   
"Aren't you just full of surprises." Danarius cooed.  
Faith coughed, her throat raw and dry,   
"Your sellers didn't know you were a Reaver."  
"How could they?" She managed to croak "I told no one, I take no pride in it."  
He undid her shackles and allowed her to sit up. "But you should, you do naturally what many of us strive our lives for."   
She laughed low and sadly, "this is no gift, how many did I slaughter today."  
The Mage looked around the room and counted three body's "Three guards."  
"Hadrianna?"  
"My apprentice knows how to save her own skin." He said wryly.  
"Damn." Faith responded. "Still not bad for a blind woman."   
He watched her as she swung her legs off the table, her hair stuck together in clumps cloths and body covered in a red mess that was slowly absorbing into her skin.  
"Death could have been your way out of this life you know." He told her taking a collar and shackles off the wall and fastening it around her neck with out any protest from her.  
"As I see it death is a permanent solution for a temporary problem." Her words were quiet, ringing with a secret confidence.   
"You see your slavery as a temporary existence?"  
"Oh yes. Very"   
he swore for an instant her eyes met his. Burning into his soul with their green fire and determination. She smiled the whites of her teeth in stark contrast to the red that coated her face.   
He led her out of the room. Handing her chains over to his apprentice.  
"Learn what you can from her." He said simply, and clicked his fingers for Fenris to follow.   
It took him a moment to pull away from her, a scar visible from where the knife had cut, but no greater wound than that. He had to quell his feelings Hadrianna tugged at Faiths chains like a dog. They walked away in opposite directions each following their master.

Days dragged by, not once he saw her. Hadrianna kept her under lock and key some where in the depth of the estate, and he served his master. Every time Denarius called her to see him, Fenris hoped that following close behind would be Faith, but she didn't surface.  
Months later he heard the tapping through the halls. At first he thought it was his mind playing tricks on him, she still haunted his thoughts, it could have been anything a person banging a stick as they walked, but as he rounded the corridor there she was.   
She still wore the collar Danarius had put on her, but she no longer wore the shackles. She carried a tray in one hand and her cane in the other. Making her way back to Hadrianna's quarters. Her skin was paper white, dark rings around her eyes, her cheek rending with a fresh bruise, her head bowed, not because the lack of vision, but because her spirit had been broken.   
Large bandages covered her wrists, the only signs of the blood mage's experiments. She didn't acknowledge him, whether it was because she didn't know he was there, or because she didn't want to speak to him he was unsure.   
He crossed her path, stopping in her way so she had no choice but to confront him. Her cane hit his leg and she came to a halt.   
Mere inches from him yet, Still she didn't speak. He removed his gauntlet and touched her cheek, for a split second she relented. Her eyes closed and a small sigh escaped her before her head turned away from him.  
"I can't." Was all she whispered "Mistress forbids it."   
Three words, three simple words set him afire. He returned his hand to his side knuckles turning white as his hand balled into a fist of rage.   
Slaves were mistreated every day, elves and humans alike. If you were not a magister you were not worthy of a position of power. You answered to every one as master or mistress. You took the beatings and you thanked them for it. Faith had survived with a rock like stubbornness that she was no ones property, and in the months passed she had broken.   
"We escape then, Danarius is gone for a few days, we could be in a ship to the Free marches before any one knows we're gone."  
Wearily Faith shook her head. "They are baiting us and you know it."  
"I don't care." He snapped "I can't stand this any longer."  
"Have you escaped before?" She asked "you know what happens if they catch up with you again?"  
"I did escape once. Danarius made me kill every one I had befriended. I know the risk. I think its worth it."  
She turned from him unconvinced. "I don't know..." 

He let her pass let her continue. Fuming quietly to himself, felling powerless to help her. He followed her quietly.   
Staying a few feet behind her, he heard her open the heavy door and close it. Through the thick wood, all sound was muffled. He heard a clatter, the sound of a tray bouncing, voices raised, and a thump. He went to the door his long fingers hovering over the handle, hesitant to open un summoned. He heard another thump and the door began to move.  
"Useless tart!" Hadrianna swore "Why the hell do we keep you?"   
He saw her get knocked to the ground, her cane flying from her hand her face meeting the hard wood floor. He took a step forward, wanting to intervene wanting to defend her as the guards stationed in Hadrianna's room chuckled quietly. He paused, her cane lay to her left, just out of reach, she had felt it fall but she was feeling around to the right. Testing the space, feeling where her opponent was.   
Her hand brushing over the boot of the guard nearest. Swiftly her left hand snatched up the cane swinging it wide, hooking behind the feet of the guard and robbing him on his balance. He fell backwards breaking one of the low tables, sending the candles and sacrificial tools clattering to the floor. She continued the arc raising the cane as she swung. By luck, or extreme skill it found the helmet of the second guard, shattering the end of the wood. Faith pulled her stick back and with a swift jab drove the splintered end into the guards face.  
Hadrianna screamed and bolted from the room, Fenris had a split second to decide to stop her or stop the advance of the first guard. He unsheathed his sword from his back and raced to help Faith, blocking the strike meant for her. The guard bounced his one handed blade no match for the size and strength of Fenris giant broad sword. Leaving the man with no time to recover he swing the sword over his head and brought it down through the mans shield and into his head. 

Faith pulled her cane free and swung towards him stopping mere inches from his face. Only hearing his approach not knowing if it was friend or foe.  
"It's me." He reassured her. "You know I had a quieter escape in mind." He took her hand "Hadrianna will be raising the others, we have to run."  
She nodded "I'll keep up." 

The manor was slow to rouse, but a few shouts and cries turned into a roar, as the house went on alert. Feet slapped against stone as they ran through the corridors trying to find a escape that wasn't blocked.  
"Wait." Faith pulled back on his hand, reigning him in before the corner. "People that way." She pointed to the right.   
"The other way is to the kitchens we won't get out there." He told her.  
She let go of him, "I have this." And with a hand on the wall she rounded the corner.   
"How do you have this." He whispered his frown deepening as he followed slowly.  
She bumped into the first guard as she had hoped, and feigned being startled. She gasped and with a small squeal tried to pull away. Thankfully the guard took the bait, grabbing both her wrists and yanking her towards him.   
She stumbled forward using the confusion to bring her hands in to a cross, twisting his arms, loosening his grip. She brought her hands across her body as she slid a leg behind him. In a quick flourish she pushed back on the already unbalanced man tripping him over her leg and slamming his head into the cobble stones. The second guard raised to strike, but Fenris was on him in a flash, his sword finding the gap in his armour between his chest plate and helmet. He chocked and gurgled before slumping on top of his unconscious comrade.   
"Down this way." Faith pointed from where the guards had come, her hand on the wall to help her rise.  
"The wine cellar?" He helped her over the bodies.   
"Doesn't it have a door to the garden? I thought I could smell grass."  
"Well yes." He confirmed "but its bolted from the out side."  
She reached into her top and pulled out a small round object, rolling it between her fingers carefully.   
"Where did you get a combustion grenade?"  
She smiled wryly "girl should never leave home with out protection."

They sprinted though the shelves of the wine cellar, Faith leading the way in the dark. Foot falls resonating in the quiet.   
They blew the door clear off its hinges, the small bauble packing far more power than expected and clambered through the debris onto the grass. Grass and wet earth squelched between Fenris toes, the evening air crisp as he sucked it in. The out side never felt so good. Lights were moving in the manor, he could hear faint shouts in the distance, but no one had coined on to the fact they were outside and staring at the outer wall.  
He looked too Faith. "It's a big wall." He said hesitantly.  
She ran her hands along the rock looking for handholds, as she found one she tested her weight on it and began to hoist her self up.  
"Good thing I'm a big girl."   
He let her take the lead, but she proved to be a more competent climber than he was, her steady pattern of moving hands testing grip then moving feet was efficient. They made it over the wall.  
He jumped to the ground. She was more hesitant.  
"I'll catch you." He called up to her  
"Are you sure."  
He laughed "You have trust me this far, what's a ten foot drop?"  
"It's not the drop I'm worried about." She quipped "It's the sudden stop at the bottom." before she let her self fall back into his arms. 

Cautiously, they snuck through the docks, boats creaked and groaned as sailors stocked ships ready to leave in the morning.   
One Captains voice rang through night.  
"Tell me about the Captain, the woman." Faith asked Fenris as they hung back behind some crates that hadn't been moved yet.  
"Tall, dark curly hair, She's quite beautiful."  
Faith rolled her eyes. "Wipe your mouth" she joked "I mean what's she wearing. Jewellery?" She could almost hear him blush.  
"Bracelets, necklace, why?"   
"Watch."   
She stood up, brushed her self down and set her head in the direction the strong female voice.   
Faith called out her voice and posture confidant, "Hello there, would you happen to be the Captain of this fine vessel?" She offered a hand to shake. Warm fingers wrapped around hers.   
"I would be indeed." The woman confirmed, Faith felt Fenris join her, standing just behind, his hand subtly brushing her arm to let her know.  
"And what can I do you for?"   
Faith smiled, the Captain releasing the hand shake, Faith had to rely on the jingle of her jewellery to position her head.  
"I was looking for passage for two." She turned back behind her linking her arm with Fenris.  
"And I have a sneaking suspicion you don't have coin for the trip?"  
Faith laughed nervously rubbing the collar she still wore, extremely conscious of its weight.  
Fenris heart was in his throat, no other ship looked ready to sail, he would have just snuck aboard but Faith was to honest for her own good.  
"No coin but we could work our passage" Faith finally answered.   
Finally Fenris clicked, she stood, head straight, alert, gesturing more than normal because she was bluffing. Feigning vision to get them passage, that's why she asked about the jewellery. The captains wrists adorned lavishly with bracelets and bead work made just enough noise to pull of the scheme.  
Gold eyes shrewdly scanned the both of them. She locked eyes with Fenris, "You look like you'd fall over in a high wind. You sailed before?"  
"The last time I escaped." He answered swiftly.   
"And what's your talent love." She held her wrist silencing its movement as she waved her hand in front of Faiths face.   
Fenris felt his heart drop as the sly Captian saw through Faith's lie.  
"I'm flexible."   
"You better be." She sighed "they say a woman on board is bad luck, so a blind woman is asking for trouble."   
"Would it sweeten the pot if I said I could swim." Masking her disappointment with humour.  
"The Maker loves a trier," The Captain laughed she placed a hand on her shoulder, "My name is Isabella, welcome aboard."


End file.
